Global, CTV - E. coli from chicken may be causing human infections, study suggests

Chicken meat may be a source of E. coli bacteria that is making its way into people and causing infections, a new study suggests. The study compared strains of E. coli bacteria in poultry and other meats to the strains found to have been causing urinary tract infections in women in Montreal from June 2005 to May 2007.

Senior author Amee Mangus said some of the strains are resistant to multiple antibiotics, a worrisome development likely due to the heavy use of the drugs in agricultural operations.

"It's just raising another caution flag to suggest that these E. coli that are not just causing diarrhea, that are causing infections in other areas of our body, they may be acquiring drug resistance through the use of drugs in our food animal production," she said in an interview from Montreal, where she is an infectious diseases epidemiologist at McGill University.